My Long Weekend

The weekend sure flew by and here it is Monday already. We don't have school today for the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday, so I'll be trying to tie up the loose ends from my weekend as I do most Mondays. Do you ever notice how so many things never get done because of all the mundane things that we feel must be done first? I don't think I ever really get done with the house cleaning, dishes, laundry, etc. and I have the mind-set that I need to before I do the fun stuff like sewing and going through photographs. It's funny how I find time for blogging and drinking coffee.

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One of the highlights of the weekend was going out with friends to see Gran Torino and have dinner out afterward. It was a great movie, both funny and touching, really the kind of movie where you laugh and cry. Clint Eastwood played the lead, a recently widowed retired Detroit autoworker who still lives in the old neighborhood. The neighborhood has vastly changed, becoming home to many immigrants, mostly Hmong, and the movie follows his relationship with the family next door. Their son, Thao is the other main character. He's a young man trying to find his way without a lot of opportunity except for the local gang trying to recruit and initiate him. It had a lot of themes, but mostly had to do with the racism of Clint's character and his enlightenment as the movie went on. I think most people can relate to it and probably know older people in their family very similar to him. Even without all of the racial epithets, there are a lot of people out there with the same kind of racism born from ignorance and lack of opportunity to experience diversity. Of course there are plenty of others who are taught to be racist and pursue it with a vengeance. Naming their child Adolf Hitler comes to mind. It will be an exciting day tomorrow with the inauguration. I believe that it's a great sign, but there is still a long way to go where racism is concerned in this country. In reading blogs before the election, I was appalled at some of the anti-Obama entries. Not all of them were coming from a racist perspective, but many were. Sweet little ladies who suddenly had this voracious interest in politics and would never have admitted that it had anything to do with racism. Anyway, I would highly recommend this movie, there was complete silence and many people in tears when it was over, attesting to its' powerful message.(Edited: I decided that I had better put in a cautionary note that this movie is rated "R", has a significant amount of foul language, violence, and racial epithets. I know that it is not everyone's cup of tea, however, I saw many older folks in the audience, really a cross section of (white) society.)

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The rest of the weekend was quickly consumed by painting the basement floor (pictures another day), taking CS back to college, bringing Quicken up to date, laundry, cleaning, etc. Oh yeah, and watching the Gopher hockey team sweep St. Cloud. I hope to get some sewing done today, but first I have to clean up the cat barf on the carpet and wash the dishes.

The End...Crabbiness Alert!

I guess this post should be titled "A New Beginning", but today I feel more like "the end". I go back to work at school tomorrow after a 17 day break. It's going to be cold, the kids will be out of any semblance of a routine, the teachers may also be a little crabby and I'm not looking forward to it. DH and I are also planning to start our diet tomorrow. So no eating cookies, chips, candy, bread, etc. for the foreseeable future. Add to it all of the things I didn't accomplish over break and it really puts me in a funk. Oh well, we're having one last big meal, ham and sweet potatoes, etc. and I'll be eating the last of the Christmas cookies and probably a glass of wine later to try to eke some enjoyment out of my last day of freedom.

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We did have a great time at the hockey game last night even though the driving was horrible both ways. We saw several cars in the ditch and dealt with a lot of freezing rain and snow before we made it home safely. Probably not the smartest trip we ever made, but for free tickets, it was totally worth it. We had a nice meal at Applebee's before the game and it was close enough that we could park, eat, and walk to the arena. They won the game in overtime. Our seats were amazing, 4th row behind one of the goals. The only complaint I have is the cheerleaders who stationed themselves in our section for the 3rd period. I don't like cheerleaders anyway, but these were particularly annoying. Anyway...here's a couple of camera phone pictures I took. They're a little blurry, but it gives you an idea how great our seats were. They got the winning goal right in front of us only a couple of minutes into the overtime period and the crowd went insane. M-I-N-N-E-S-O-T-A Minnesota, Minnesota, Yaaaay Gophers!!!

A Hockey Game

DH and I have been given tickets for the Gopher Hockey game tonight. They are playing in the championship game of their holiday tournament at Mariucci Arena at the U of M. I started following Gopher hockey last year when one of my co-worker's sons started playing for the team. I enjoy watching the games on tv, but we've never seen them play in person, so it will be kind of exciting. I hope that the weather will cooperate for our trip to the cities and back, it sounds like there may be some snow. We watched their game last night after we got back from our final holiday gathering of the year. We had a pot-luck meal at some friends house with a white elephant gift exhange. I really should post a picture of the gift I got, perhaps another day.

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I'm considering joining my first group blog. It has to do with clutter removal and each person in the group chooses an area they need to work on and posts information they have learned to conquer the particular area. My area will be photographs, both regular and digital. I need to get all of that stuff organized before SD's graduation this spring so that I can make her a nice photo display board and maybe even an album. I'll leave a link once it gets off the ground.

Meals, Music, Movies, and More Meals

We had quite a nice weekend, I know it's Tuesday, but I'm still thinking about all that happened. On Friday night, our church choir participated in a choir benefit for an agency that supports homeless families in our town. Churches, including mine, take turns hosting the families for a week at a time. The church provides the evening meal and places to sleep, usually on air mattresses in Sunday School rooms. During the day, the clients go to a day home where the agency works with them to find housing, jobs, etc. It has been a pretty successful program and has really changed my view of what it means to be homeless. Most are young women with children. Anyway, there were about a dozen choirs participating along with an orchestra and a brass group. It was fun to hear the other choirs perform and also to sing two pieces as a mass choir. The event raised $9,000 plus, so that was nice considering the tough economic times for most people. Afterwards, most of the choir went to a Mexican restaurant for a late supper and drinks. On Saturday, I did some things around the house and also got the leaves in the front yard picked up again. It was cold enough to see my breath, so I felt a little silly, but I used the mower with the bagging attachment to get the leaves. Late in the afternoon, we met four other couples to go see the new James Bond movie Quantum of Solace. I didn't really like the movie that well, but all of the "boys" did. After that we went to an Italian restaurant for a fabulous meal, so that made the evening worth it. I was pretty exhausted by the time we got home. I had recorded the Gopher hockey game, so I watched that mostly on fast forward. We had to be to church early on Sunday as the bell choir and the regular choir I'm in performed at the early service. We played bells at the beginning of the late service too and then I came home for a quick nap. I had to make it quick since we were hosting a Fellowship Tables meal Sunday night. For this there are four couples who get together three times during the year for a meal. It is a nice chance to get to know some people we wouldn't otherwise. I knew the other couples only a little, so I wasn't sure how it would go, but we had a really nice time. Everyone brings part of the meal, so it isn't so much work for the hosts. I also managed to watch most of the Sunday afternoon hockey game while I was working around the house and kitchen. I've never been much of a hockey fan, but the goalie is from our town and I know his parents, so it has been fun to keep up with it. He had his first shut-out and is undefeated so far this year.